Jake Shields wasn’t thinking about politics or how people might perceive his actions.

He just saw a person being assaulted, and he reacted.

Shields, a veteran mixed martial arts fighter and Calaveras High School graduate, said he came to the rescue of a man being beaten by a group of masked attackers on Wednesday at the protest of controversial conservative writer Milo Yiannopoulos’ scheduled appearance at the University of California, Berkeley campus. Shields broke up the attack and the man was able to escape, and a video of the aftermath of the incident he posted on Twitter has gone viral.

Since the Twitter post, Shields has received reactions ranging from praise for helping the man to name calling and questions about his political leanings.

The 38-year-old didn’t discuss whether he’s a liberal or a conservative, and said it shouldn’t matter.

“I don’t think helping a person being attacked is a left thing or a right thing,” Shields said. “And I don’t think free speech is a left or right thing.”

Shields, who grew up in Mountain Ranch and lives in San Francisco, stated he and his girlfriend, Megan Chin, were in Berkeley for dinner and heard about the protests concerning Yiannopoulos, who is editor of the right-wing Breitbart News site and was permanently banned from Twitter in July for what the company cited as “inciting or engaging in the targeted abuse or harassment of others.” The appearance at Berkeley was canceled, as was one at the University of California, Davis in January after protests.

The couple went over to the campus and he said he saw what looked like a “battlefield,” with protesters lighting fires, damaging property and attacking people. Shields’ first inclination was not to get involved, until he saw a man wearing a Trump hat being chased by a group of as many as 20 people in masks. He said other bystanders and police in the area did not act.

“This guy was covered in blood and they were chasing him down,” Shields said. “They circled him and started attacking him, just because I guess he was a Trump supporter.

“It was brutal and out of line. No one else would do anything, but I just couldn’t stand there.”

The 6-foot, 170-pound fighter threw punches and shoved people away from the man before finally freeing him.

“The guy was bloody but basically OK,” Shields said. “I wanted to break it up as fast as possible. When you throw punches, most people back off, and these weren’t trained fighters.”

He recalled getting hit about 10 times but was not injured. He said the most disappointing thing was that no one else would get involved, including law enforcement officers on the scene.

“I went to try to get police assistance, and the officers there said they wouldn’t go in,” Shields said. “Like 100 people were around, and no one helped. I stayed around a bit to try to help more, but it got so chaotic that I wanted to take my girlfriend and get to a safe place.”

His girlfriend shot the expletive-laden video of the aftermath, when Shields was arguing with some of the masked people. Shields didn’t post a video on Twitter until Friday.

“I just put the video up, and it got kind of crazy,” Shields said. “I had a lot of people come up to me, and a lot of requests for interviews. I mean, I’ll talk to them, but I can’t really say what I was thinking. I just reacted.”

His mother, Billie Shields of Arnold, did not know what had happened in Berkeley until she saw it on social media.

“My first thing was 'geez, he could have been hurt.’ ” Billie Shields said. “That Jake would step in and help people being ganged up on doesn’t surprise me, and he wouldn’t care what their political bent is. You just don’t beat up people because they think different than you.”

Shields wrestled for four years at Calaveras High, and has had 42 MMA fights in his 17-year career. He has fought for UFC and is currently contracted to World Series of Fighting.

— Contact reporter Scott Linesburgh at (209) 546-8281 or slinesburgh@recordnet.com. Follow him at recordnet.com/sportsblog and on Twitter @ScottLinesburgh.

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